Last Updated on 9 years by Publishing Team

The Ministry of Health & Medial Services will continue to work strategically to intervene on Fiji’s non communicable disease (NCD) crisis after having released evidence from the NCD Risk Factor STEPS report 2011.

This is the second STEPS survey conducted in Fiji which has revealed highly relevant data on trends and the extent of the NCD problem.

The Hon. Minister for Health & Medical Services Mr Jone Usamate said, “The outlook for Fiji is dire as the majority of the adult population is at high risk of developing NCDs and growing problems of high blood glucose”.

“All risk factors, except tobacco have shown an increase in prevalence. Lifestyle of behavioural risk factor intervention remains a key in Fiji’s fight against NCD. Our success with tobacco reduction offers hope in terms of lessons learnt through advocacy and legislation”.

STEPS 2011 has also enabled Fiji to analyse the combined risk factors of the population. 2.7% were found to be of low risk, 63.4% moderate and 34% high risk. One in three Fijian women was found to be anaemic”.

The objectives of the survey were to investigate and document the occurrence of key NCDs amongst the target population, understand the prevalence of major modifiable risk factors, and to study and compare NCDs and their risk factors according to age, gender and ethnicity.

The WHO STEPS SURVEY 2011 is another example of research collaboration between World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MoHMS) of Fiji.

Fiji continues to acknowledge this partnership as it creates evidence to inform strategic interventions to Fiji’s NCD crisis.